Is Money For Warfare More Important Than Health Care?

Below is an anonymous comment to a recent Facebook photo being passed around that compares money spent on warfare to money spent on health care:

Fact is, people abuse the system, And when something is free, ungodly people take advantage of it. But hey! Its worth a shot. I feel sorry for the people that will be fined for not having insurance who are perfectly healthy. Which is mostly what this is. A law that says you have to have insurance, like having car insurance and without it, you receive a fine.

This comment was in response to something Mark Ruffalo said, I think on Real Time with Bill Maher. To paraphrase, Ruffalo said, “We don’t question trillions spent on warfare but we are shocked that health care, our well-being, should cost us some money.”

My response to this anonymous Facebook comment is to ask, where are your priorities? I find it alarming that this person’s concern is for the money the uninsured person will now need to spend (due to the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act), and not for the tens of millions who don’t have health care insurance because they can’t afford it.

When you factor in that we all pay for those who do not have insurance (voluntary or involuntary), philosophical arguments over whether someone should be forced to buy insurance or pay a fine appear to miss the mark.